THEY are always talking here of the Constitution.1 The other day I went into a certain house, where the first person I saw was a fat man with a red face, who said in a loud voice, I have issued my charge; I shall make no further reply to anything you may say; but read my charge, and you will see that I have solved all your doubts. I sweated over it, he continued, pressing his brow with his hand; I had need of all my learning, and was obliged to read many Latin authors. I believe it, said a man who was standing by, for it is an admirable work; and I altogether defy that Jesuit who comes so often to see you to write a better. Read it, then, replied he, and you will know more of these matters in a quarter of an hour than if I had talked to you about them for a whole day. In this way he avoided engaging in conversation and the exposure of his own incompetence. But finding himself pressed, he was obliged to leave his entrenchment, and began to utter a mass of theological nonsense, supported by a dervish who received his remarks with the utmost respect. When two men who were present denied any of his principles, he said at once, It is true; we have so decided it, and we are infallible judges. But how, said I, are you infallible judges? Do you not see, he replied, that the Holy Ghost enlightens us? That is fortunate, I rejoined, for from the style of your talk to-day, I perceive how much you need to be enlightened.